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OVERALL

BUILD QUALITY

FEATURES

VALUE FOR MONEY

Price when reviewed

£109 inc VAT

Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch GlowLight review

REVIEW UPDATED: 24th October 2013

The Nook Simple Touch GlowLight is not Barnes & Nobles’ first E Ink-based reader. But it is the first that can be read in the dark, making it a rival for other nocturnal e-readers such as the Kobo Glo and Kindle Paperwhite.

The Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch GlowLight are aimed at literature fans, designed for reading books, magazine and epublications. Barnes & Noble, already a formidable power in the US book market, is trying to gain a foothold in the UK with this launch of its new Nook eReaders and tablets.

Originally £109 (to compete with the Amazon Paperwhite) the Nook GlowLight now costs just £49 - a vertible bargain, or so it seems. The Nook offers a high-quality touch screen and reading experience.

Nook Simple Touch GlowLight: Design and Build

Design-wise, the Nook is very sturdy, measuring 127mm wide, 166mm high and 12.7mm thick. The back has a rubbery finish which certainly aids grip in one hand.

The Nook has a 6in E Ink Pearl display with 800 x 600 pixels.The Paperwhite, though, has a higher resolution of 1024 x 768, giving a higher pixel density of 212ppi and making characters sharper.

Despite its size, the Nook is very light at just under 200g, making it very comfortable to hold.

In our tests it worked well, and can be used for outdoor reading, with no reflected glare in bright sunlight. The Nook Simple Touch Glowlight has built-in LED lighting for low-light and night-time reading, meaning you won’t need to disturb your partner whilst cosying up with Mr Grey for a bit of ‘Nookie’.

The evenly spaced LED lights ensure even lighting of the page, albeit adding a slightly blue hue over the words, which shouldn’t hinder your reading experience.

Its battery life is advertised at over one month of use using the GlowLight, or two months with it off. In the two weeks we were using it, it didn’t need to be charged once.

Nook Simple Touch GlowLight: Internal

Unusually for a simple ebook reader, the Nook is based on Google Android operating system, version 2.1. While its interface is not the same as your usual Google phone it’s straightforward to use, with the home screen showing what books or publicatins you are reading now, and recommendations for future purchases from Barnes & Noble.

Easy understandable icons and generously spaced menus make navigation simple. The home screen is easily accessible by clicking on the ‘n’ button on the bottom of the device. Sone customisable options include changing the font size, line spacing and margins.

The Nook is powered by a 800MHz ARM processor. It has 2GB of internal storage, although only 240MB was shown as available to the user. There’s an option to expand the storage up to 32GB through a microSD card slot. It uses infrared light on the side of the bezel for its touch sensitivity, and we found this to be responsive to touch and accurate when using the keyboard and menus.

B&N is really pushing its social reading experience with programs like Nook Friends and Lendme, as well as social integration of Facebook and Twitter.

You can start a conversation about your latest read after you share it on Facebook. We tried this “share” feature and had some good feedback from friends. Who said book clubs were dead? You can lend the Nook ebooks that you’ve downloaded, for up to 14 days, with other Nook users or anyone with a Barnes and Noble app installed on their Android or Apple device.

B&N provides an ecosystem for customers to buy and read books. B&N’s main UK selling portal is uk.nook.com, and we’re told customers will be able to find more than 2.5 million digital books, including UK newspapers and magazines. It should also offer content from independent publishers and self-publishing authors through the PubIt programme.

Although the selection of ebooks in the Nook store is comparable with Amazon's selection (and in some cases better), we found that some titles we compared were twice the price of those on Amazon. Plenty of others were price matched, but we didn't find any that were cheaper.

Depending on how many books you buy - and which they are - you might find that the GlowLight's price advantage is quickly offset by the increased price of books.

The Nook is able to support EPUB PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP file formats. Don’t expect to be able to take your downloaded books off your Nook via USB though, as your downloaded content is locked to your Nook and not transferable, apart from a temporarily lend to a friend using Lendme.

Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch GlowLight: Specs

ebook reader

6in (600 x 800 pixel) E Ink Pearl display

infrared touchscreen

800MHz TI OMAP 3621 ARM processor

Google Android 2.1 OS

2GB flash storage

microSD card expansion to 32GB

256MB memory

left-right paging buttons, home button

Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n

micro-USB port

166 x 127 x 12.7mm)

200g

ebook reader

6in (600 x 800 pixel) E Ink Pearl display

infrared touchscreen

800MHz TI OMAP 3621 ARM processor

Google Android 2.1 OS

2GB flash storage

microSD card expansion to 32GB

256MB memory

left-right paging buttons, home button

Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n

micro-USB port

166 x 127 x 12.7mm)

200g

OUR VERDICT

Slightly chunkier than its rival Kindle but somehow lighter, the Nook Simple Touch GlowLight may have found itself a niche in the market. A simple interface makes it easy to use and the social integration with Facebook and Twitter is a fun feature. The GlowLight feature works well too.

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Comments

gem said: Comments,gem,lol, just read it, LOADS of mistakes

GreggyM said: Comments,GreggyM,Bought a Nook and for first two days it was great. On day two had problem accessing account on the website meaning I couldn't buy anything. Tried several e-mails and webchats over the next nine days but didn't get anywhere near a solution. As there's no helpline in the UK I called the US number - person there couldn't help and suggested I try contacting someone in the UK.At no point during e-mail, webchat or phonecall communication did I get any inkling that I was being listened to and at no point did I get anywhere near a solution. Might have been an idea to set up meaningful customer support / after sales service before launching the product.Reluctantly its now Kindle for me.

Jonathan Dowland said: Comments,Jonathan Dowland,Was the proofreader on holiday when this was published?

Alexjosling said: Comments,Alexjosling,Got one for Christmas and so far every book I have searched for is not available for a Nook. Should have got a Kindle

Lesley Anne Kinney said: Comments,Lesley Anne Kinney,I have a Nook I bought while living in America. It is fantastic. I can surf the web, download photos onto it (I use it as a portfolio), read books, get my email. I returned to England and the screen got smashed so my son bought me the Nook they have on sale here. It is so basic it's not worth having. I wish he hadn't wasted his money on it.

Gerald Luetchford said: Comments,Gerald Luetchford,i brought a nook simple touch with glow light from currys there was no information on the product so i thought it would be a good christmas present for my wife .WRONG. i wanted the entire harry potter set of books so i was told b&amp;n did not have them , but the pottermore site did, i went onto the site and purchased them with a debit card. they were sent to the nook, but when i wanted to download them b&amp;n wanted details of my credit card for purchasing info to be stored on their site. problem is i do not have a credit card. just a debit card. and thats the problem there is no facilities to pay by debit card, so i could not download them now i have been in touch with b&amp;n they say there is no way i can download them if i do not have a credit card, BEWARE when purchasing this m/c or any other reader from them because i am £150 down and no way of getting it back regarda to all Gerry Luetchford